A Georgia Girl in Germany

MacKenzie was very excited when she woke up yesterday morning and realized it was her birthday. She’d been counting down the days, and her big day was finally here! She could barely contain herself, and wanted to open her presents before we headed out in the morning. As a compromise, I allowed her to open all the cards that had come for her in the mail.

I tried to pick her up from summer camp to take her out for lunch, but when I arrived to do so, she had just finished eating (I was told the wrong time). I still signed her out, and she watched me eat a quick lunch before we headed to Baskin Robbins for dessert.

After her Girl Scout meeting, we headed to Le Rose Italian Restaurant for dinner with another family to celebrate. She commented earlier that she wanted to go somewhere for her birthday where they come to the table and sing “Happy Birthday” to her, but that she didn’t think anywhere did that here. I certainly didn’t know of anywhere that did. Fortunately, when we called Luigi that afternoon, he agreed to bring her a slice of pie with a candle as long as we helped sing to her. That made her evening!

I knew she didn’t like tiramisu, so I opted for a slice of cheesecake with her serenade. After a few bites, she decided she didn’t care for that either (she definitely didn't inherit that from me!), so Luigi brought her a slice of apple pie! Of course, she had to move the candle over to that slice before taking a bite. By then, though, she was getting full, so she opted to braid Emma’s hair instead of finishing her dessert. I suppose that’s her prerogative as the birthday girl!


After sufficiently stuffing ourselves on delicious Italian food, she invited Emma and Evan over to watch her open her presents. Benjamin was disappointed that he didn’t get to open one, and didn’t want to hear me tell him that his big day is just around the corner. After a few short minutes, she had happily unwrapped clothes, two movies, a Crayon-styled “piggy bank,” some gel window decals, a pair of bicycle gloves and a tamagotchi. She was very excited about her gifts, and, more importantly, about finally being nine years old!

Labels: Birthdays, MacKenzie

Zachary’s first trip to England is being marked by typical British weather: rain, rain, and more rain. This photo is the only visual I’ve seen thus far from the campout and shows four of the leaders, but I imagine it’s pretty representative of what Zachary and his fellow campers have experienced these past few days. It’s blurry, but notice the huge puddle in the background! This photo was taken on Monday, when North England was hit with a deluge of rain. From what I’ve heard, one of the leaders went out and purchased more tarps to hang over the tents to try to keep the rain out.

Fortunately, I received an update from one of the leaders’ wives this evening saying that “all is well” and they had a day of sunshine today. Hopefully that holds true for the rest of the week. I’m sure Zachary will come home with a slew of rain-related stories to share!

Some of the worst-hit towns, from what I can gather, are between 75 and 90 miles away from Camp Baden-Powell. Unfortunately, the camp is just outside Sheffield, which also made the news. The article at right was in today's Stars & Stripes. For BBC coverage of the nearby extreme weather, see this story.

Labels: Boy Scouts, England, Zachary

As I type this, Zachary should be on the final leg of his trek to Camp Baden-Powell near Sheffield, England. He and about two dozen other Boy Scouts and six adult chaperones from Stuttgart will spend a week camping with Boy Scouts from around Europe at the camp appropriately named after the founder of the Boy Scout movement: Lord Robert Baden-Powell.
We’ve spent the last few nights packing and repacking his backpack, double-checking his gear, and getting ready for this campout. Zachary was definitely excited when the time came to meet up and move out!

It’s actually the centennial year of scouting, since Baden-Powell sponsored the first scout campout with 22 boys on July 25, 1907, on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour in southern England. This first campout was designed to test out Baden-Powell’s ideas that stemmed from his rewriting of his best-seller book, “Aids to Scouting,” to suit a youth readership.

Who ever would have thought that the first campout nearly 100 years ago would give rise to the world scouting movement that now claims membership of more than 38 million scouts!?!!

On a side note, my first trip to England was sans parents (as a junior-high exchange student). Interesting how Zachary’s first trip there is also sans parents!

Labels: Boy Scouts, England, Zachary

Zachary had his first international camping experience last month. It was a three-night campout in Gundershoffen, France, over the Memorial Day weekend. He was really looking forward to it, and had told me that his primary interests are technology and camping...that’s who he is. So, even though he’d been camping the weekend before in Garmisch, he wanted to go to this campout as well.

These shots are of their 10-mile hike on the first day there. Beautiful landscape for a campout!


I suggested that he take photos of the unique aspect of Intercamp, namely the campers from other countries. This photo is of a skit performed by some other scouts. Oh yeah, one of the more distinct differences of Intercamp is that it was co-ed.

The next day, he and some of his scout-mates decided to take pictures of the “hot girls” who were walking by their tents. At least they waved to try to get the girls to look their way! This is only one of many photos of “hot girls” walking by Zachary’s campsite. I suppose he followed my suggestion of taking photos of the unique side of Intercamp compared to the more traditional Boy Scouts of America campouts!


Some of the girls were rather scantily clad...bikini tops and shorts. He can definitely say he had a different camping experience this time around!

I think these are the same two girls coming...
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...and going!



Notice the different uniforms of the other campers.

Not sure where the band was from.

He only took one photo of the Polish scouters (below), and unfortunately it didn’t turn out very well. But you can still tell that their uniforms were very distinct.


This is the food and mess gear for Zachary’s troop.



Here’s his campsite.

He was proud of the poster, silkscreen shirt, patches and other treasures he brought home, and immediately hung the poster on his door.

Next campout: Camp Baden-Powell, in Sheffield, England.

Labels: Boy Scouts, France, Zachary

On the last day of school (June 14), Zachary participated in the 4th and 5th grade awards assembly. The highlight of the morning was when the art teacher got up and began talking about how he had submitted 10% of the year's student artwork for consideration in the DODDS-Europe annual creative publication. He went on to say that only one student’s artwork was selected for publication, then called Zachary up to be recognized. His teacher had told me that one of Zachary's paintings had been selected for inclusion in the Showcase 2007 anthology, but I didn’t realize his was the only artwork selected from 500 students! Zachary was especially proud of the German set of watercolor paints he received -- 24 colors!

I haven’t seen the painting (it’s being copied for publication), but apparently it’s of a skydiver falling in the sky before his parachute opens. I can’t wait to see it when Zachary receives a copy of the Showcase in September. I’ll be sure to post a copy of it when we get a the publication so you can all see what a good artist Zachary is. Not only is he bright, but he’s creative too!

Zachary was also recognized for achieving the A-B Honor Roll and for receiving the Silver Presidential Academic Award. What a nice way to end the school year...and his last year in elementary school!

Labels: Zachary

Immediately after MacKenzie’s Fly-up ceremony, we climbed into the van to head over to Zachary’s first Boy Scout Court of Honor. Since dinner preceded the ceremony, and started before MacKenzie’s Fly-up ceremony concluded, he went early with one of his scout-mates.

Zachary was recognized for earning his first merit badge, in Environmental Science. He was one of only two new scouts to earn this badge. What’s even more impressive is that it’s an Eagle-required badge, and one of the more difficult ones to complete. I’m very proud of him!

After that recognition, he and his fellow new scouts were recognized for earning the ranks of Scout and Tenderfoot.


Benjamin played at the nearby playground during most of the ceremony, which worked out well so he didn’t disrupt the recognition. However, as we started to leave, he proudly told me that he had thrown four “hornshoes” into a water-filled ditch. Ugh!! I didn’t figure we could leave while the horseshoes remained missing from the nearby pit. Fortunately, the father of a scout who was already wet from falling into the water offered him up to wade through the water to retrieve them. As far as Benjamin was concerned, it was just as much fun to throw them into the water as it was to throw rocks into the water. What a boy! At least he told me about his fun before we left so we could retrieve the horseshoes!

Labels: Benjamin, Boy Scouts, Zachary

This past week, MacKenzie met a significant milestone in her Girl Scout adventure: she “flew up” from Brownies to Juniors. There was one group ceremony to recognize all scouts in the Stuttgart area moving up to the next level, so there were quite a few people in attendance.

MacKenzie happily crossed the bridge symbolizing her advancement, took off her patch-laden Brownie vest, and donned a relatively empty Junior vest. She’s already been flipping through her Junior merit badge book to get ideas for which ones she wants to begin working on.

Of course, you can’t have a ceremony without having treats afterward. She, Emma and Benjamin definitely found the treat table.

Labels: Girl Scouts, MacKenzie

I had wanted to head up to Heidelberg for a while, so when I learned that the Heidelberg Castle would be lit up under a fireworks display recently, I figured that was the perfect opportunity to take a road trip. I hesitated for a short while though, since I wasn’t sure if the weather would hold (this was the same day as MacKenzie’s soccer playoffs).

I have actually been to Heidelberg before, back in September 2001 when I deployed right after 9/11 and was delayed at Ramstein for a week trying to get downrange. This was definitely a more relaxing visit though, since I didn’t have to duck inside buildings to answer phone calls about my team’s onward travel. This time I only had to keep any eye on four children (yes, we had an extra body traveling with us).

The romantic Heidelberg Castle is perched atop a hill overlooking the picturesque Old Town and the Neckar River below. This view shows a Madonna statue in the Kornmarkt square. The Madonna was commissioned and placed in the town when the rulers decided it would be a Catholic town. The townspeople weren’t used to religious statues, so weren’t quite sure what to make of the statue, especially since they recognized that she was standing atop “nonbelievers.”

What is now the Haus zum Ritter (Hotel Ritter), was built in 1592 by a wealthy merchant, and has a rather elaborate façade. It was made of stone rather than wood, and, as our guide stated, stones were a sign of wealth. Because of its sturdy construction, it was the only Heidelberg mansion to survive the French invasion of 1693, and is now the oldest remaining Renaissance building in Heidelberg. After the town was sacked and burned by the French, it served as the town hall from 1694 to 1703. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The only other building in the Marktplatz to survive the invasion was the Heiliggeist Kirche (Church of the Holy Ghost). Construction began in 1402, and the church was both Protestant and Catholic from 1705 to 1936, but is now a Protestant church. A wall between the nave and the choir separated the two faiths. The merchant stalls along the outside walls have been there since medieval days, and are now used by souvenir vendors.

From the Marktplatz, we traveled down picturesque winding alleys to the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge). Also known as the Karl-Theodor-Brücke, it spans the Neckar River and its twin-towered bridge gate dates back to the Middle Ages.

The Alte Brücke is actually the ninth bridge constructed on this site, with the previous eight bridges (all made of wood) being destroyed by floods, fire or ice. The current bridge was completed in 1788, only to be blown up in 1945 and rebuilt in 1947.


The kids actually stood still long enough for me to take a photo of them on the Alte Brücke with the Heidelberg Castle in the background. Zachary’s friend, David, is the fourth kid.

Zachary had to try on this bronze monkey sculpture. The sculpture was made by noted Professor G. Rumpf and is a reproduction of the stone sculpture that was on the bridge many centuries ago.



After our stroll across the Neckar River and back, the skies turned grey and opened up...so we ducked inside the Baroque Jesuitenkirche. It was built in 1712, and was pretty simple, yet elegant inside. I liked the plain white interior with gold and green accents on the columns. It's rather simple for a Baroque church, but still very elegant.


Fortunately, the rains didn’t last long, so we continued our tour past the Studentenkarzer (student jail) to the New University (the white building in the background) and Old University (with the red doors and window frames). The Old University was built in the early 18th century and is the oldest surviving building of the school, while the New University was built in 1930 with funds donated by Americans (Henry Ford was the largest contributor). Heidelberg University was founded in 1386 and is the oldest in Germany. When our guide began to tell us about the many degree programs the school offered, she quickly quit, then listed off the only degree programs it doesn’t offer (there were only about six).

After the tour, we stopped by the Hard Rock Café, hoping to get some good, meaty burgers. Sadly, the burgers weren’t anywhere near as good as what we had hoped, although the fries were delicious. David’s mom had led a USO tour (which we were allowed to tag along with), so when the tour group dispersed, she joined us for the rest of the evening.


After dinner, we walked down to the next bridge upstream from the Alte Brücke to stake out a position from where to watch the evening’s fireworks display. We contemplated staying on the bridge, but opted instead to sit along the bank of the Neckar River since it gave the kids plenty of opportunity to burn off some energy running up and down the pathway winding along the river.

The lighting of the castle only takes place three times a year, and now commemorates when the French General Melac and his troops destroyed and burned down Heidelberg Castle more than 300 years ago. The fireworks display is designed to give the illusion of a battle taking place between the people on the Alte Brücke below and the inhabitants of the castle. The event culminates with the fortress lit up as though it were on fire, complete with smoke and flickering blood red lights in the castle windows. While we had a wonderful view of the castle itself from our vantage point, we didn’t see much of the fireworks over the Alte Brücke. Sigh.


The fireworks and illumination actually began in 1613, before the French destroyed much of the town, when newly-wed Prince Elector Frederic V welcomed his young wife to Heidelberg.
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The English princess Elizabeth Stuart (daughter of England’s James I) was received with due respect and a splendid event, including illuminating the castle with bright colors and displaying star balls high above the Neckar River.


We decided to walk down the pathway toward the Alte Brücke during the show to try to find a better vantage point, and managed to see a little more of the fireworks and the light display on the bridge. Once the light show was over, I couldn’t resist taking a few night shots of the Old Town with the castle lit up...first from across the river...

Then from the Karlsplatz with a beautiful fountain in the foreground.

We still need to go back to visit the castle itself (it houses the world’s largest wine cask and the German Pharmaceutical Museum--I think the Germans have a museum for everything!). Again, I’ve been before, shortly after 9/11, but definitely think it's worth another visit.


Here are a few links to stories about Heidelberg. This one shows more of the town: http://www.afneurope.net/Article.asp?PT=Destinations&id=277261. This one shows more of the Student Prison, which we only walked past: http://www.afneurope.net/Article.asp?PT=Destinations&id=244206.

Labels: Benjamin, Germany, MacKenzie, Travel, Zachary